Cycas canalis

Cycas canalis is a cycad of the open eucalypt forests of the north-western Northern Territory, in Australia, known near the coast around Channel Point and, further inland, between Douglas Hot Springs and Dorisvale. Described by Ken Hill in 1994, this species of the genus Cycas takes its name from Channel Point. Its new leaves emerge a waxy, almost blue colour before turning glossy green, and its crown is set in thick orange wool. Hill divided it into two subspecies, Cycas canalis subsp. canalis and subsp. carinata; the second is now treated as a synonym. Locally very abundant, it is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern.

Key facts about Cycas canalis

  • Accepted name: Cycas canalis K.D.Hill (1994), accepted by The World List of Cycads (version 2026.08.15) and by the Flora of Australia (update of November 2025); POWO could not be consulted directly
  • Former names and synonyms: Cycas canalis subsp. carinata K.D.Hill (1994), now included in the species; placed under Cycas lane-poolei by de Laubenfels and Adema (1998), a view not followed
  • Family: Cycadaceae, order Cycadales
  • Common names: no English name attested; two names in Aboriginal languages, shared with another species (see Common names)
  • Natural range: Australia, Northern Territory: the coast around Channel Point, north of the mouth of the Daly River, and inland from Douglas Hot Springs to Dorisvale
  • IUCN status: Least Concern (LC), assessment by J. D. Bösenberg (2022), LC according to GBIF
  • CITES and other protection: CITES Appendix II (listing of the whole family; seeds exempt under annotation #4); Annex B in the European Union
  • Documented hardiness: no data; a tropical species, to be kept frost-free (see Cold hardiness)
  • Light and soil: open forest or woodland with Eucalyptus miniata, on well-drained, usually lateritic soils
  • Habit and adult size: trunk to 3 m, rarely 5 m, 7 to 14 cm across; leaves 60 to 105 cm long
  • In the UK, US and Australia: one accession at Montgomery Botanical Center (Florida); seed collected in the wild in 2002 for the Darwin Botanic Gardens; no record in the UK
  • Toxicity: not studied for the species; treat it as poisonous, like all Cycas (see Toxicity and precautions)

How to recognise Cycas canalis

Three features identify it: strongly glaucous, almost blue new leaves that later turn glossy green; long, flat leaflets whose margins are not rolled under; and long cataphylls (the scales that protect the growing point) covered in thick orange wool. According to Ken Hill’s description (1994) and the Flora of Australia:

  • Trunk: up to 3 m, rarely 5 m, 7 to 14 cm across.
  • Leaves: 60 to 105 cm long, flat or slightly keeled (opposite leaflets set at 130 to 180° to each other), with 100 to 170 leaflets, usually ending in a spine; petiole 15 to 25 cm, hairless or sparsely orange-hairy, spiny along 70 to 100% of its length.
  • Leaflets: 10 to 20.5 cm long and 4.5 to 8 mm wide, narrowed to 3 to 5 mm at the base, hairless, strongly glaucous when young, then mid to dark green and semi-glossy, with flat margins; the midrib is raised on both sides, more prominently beneath.
  • Young growth: dense, woolly orange and grey down; cataphylls 7 to 9 cm long, pungent and thickly woolly.
  • Male cones: ovoid, orange, 15 to 22 cm long and 8 to 12 cm across; terminal spine of the microsporophylls slender and upturned, 11 to 18 mm.
  • Megasporophylls (the fertile leaves of female plants): 16 to 25 cm long, with grey and orange down, carrying 2 to 4 ovules; sterile blade lanceolate, 40 to 60 mm by 22 to 32 mm, regularly toothed with 12 to 20 spines on each side, terminal spine 10 to 30 mm.
  • Seeds: flattened ovoid, green then orange, without bloom, 34 to 40 mm long and 30 to 36 mm wide.

Hill (1994) separated two subspecies. The coastal plants (subsp. canalis) have flat leaves 60 to 90 cm long and leaflets set at 50 to 90° to the rachis; the inland plants (subsp. carinata) have longer leaves (70 to 105 cm), openly keeled, with longer leaflets (up to 20.5 cm) set at only 40 to 50°. The label of the type collection describes an “abundant cycad to 2 m, occasionally to 5 m” with “strongly glaucous new growth”.

Hybrids

No natural or garden hybrid is documented in the sources consulted.

Possible confusion

Cycas canalis belongs to the group of Cycas armstrongii, the Northern Territory Cycas with flat leaflets.

  • Cycas armstrongii, smaller, has leaflets whose midrib is equally prominent above and below, and glossy green young leaves rather than blue ones.
  • Cycas conferta, from the Pine Creek region, has shorter leaflets (7 to 12 cm), crowded and overlapping, and a petiole usually without spines.
  • Hill (1996) notes that the dense orange wool brings Cycas canalis close to Cycas lane-poolei, from Western Australia, and to Cycas maconochiei, from the Northern Territory.

Taxonomy

Cycas canalis is accepted by The World List of Cycads; POWO could not be consulted directly. Ken Hill described it in 1994 in “Three new species of Cycas (Cycadaceae) from the Northern Territory, Australia”, Telopea 5(4): 698–700, in which he also described Cycas arnhemica and Cycas orientis. The type was collected on 8 September 1991 by Hill and Leonie Stanberg on the track from Labelle Downs homestead to Channel Point, in savanna forest of Eucalyptus miniata and Eucalyptus tetrodonta on sandy loam over laterite; the holotype is in Sydney (NSW), with isotypes in Canberra and Darwin. The World List of Cycads notes that the collection number and the list of duplicates differ between the 1994 and 1996 publications. The type of subsp. carinata came from a very localised stand of about ten plants, up to 5 m tall, 90 km from the Stuart Highway on the Dorisvale road, collected on 11 September 1991.

In his 1996 revision, Hill placed the species in series Armstrongianosae (section Cycas, subsection Endemicae), with Cycas armstrongii, Cycas conferta, Cycas orientis, Cycas lane-poolei and Cycas xipholepis, among others. These species have flat leaflets with no protective cell layer beneath the epidermis, shallowly sunken stomata and a very thin cuticle, and they grow on lateritised sandy soils in savanna woodland. De Laubenfels and Adema (1998), who favoured very broad species, sank Cycas canalis into Cycas lane-poolei; The World List of Cycads does not follow them.

Subspecies carinata is now treated as a plain synonym: the updated Flora of Australia (November 2025) recognises a single species and notes that the two separate occurrences were previously treated as subspecies, as in Hill’s 1998 account. The study behind this change was not identified in the sources consulted.

Etymology and history

The epithet comes from the Latin canalis, “channel”, and refers to Channel Point, where the species was found (Hill 1994; Haynes 2022). Hill explained that he had published several Northern Territory species quickly because their names were already circulating among horticulturists and because conservation authorities needed legitimate names in order to issue permits. On the French forum Fous de palmiers, a grower reported in January 2013 that a specialist dealer was offering seed of the species, a rare event.

Common names

No English common name is attested. The compendium of vernacular cycad names by Mark Bonta and Roy Osborne records two Aboriginal names from the Northern Territory for Cycas canalis, walangkirrik in Malakmalak and turtur in Matngala, taken from an ethnobotanical publication of 2001. The same names are given for Cycas calcicola, which grows in the same region: they probably refer to cycads in general rather than to a single species.

In the wild

Cycas canalis is endemic to the Northern Territory. According to Hill (1994, 1996) and the Flora of Australia, it is widespread and locally abundant on a variety of well-drained soils, usually lateritic, in open forest or woodland with Eucalyptus miniata. It is known near the coast around Channel Point, north of the mouth of the Daly River, where it is locally very abundant, and in an apparently separate inland area, from west of Dorisvale to around Douglas Hot Springs. Its presence on the coast south of the Daly mouth has been reported, but no collection confirms it.

Herbarium labels published through GBIF give a few further details: on the Channel Point track, an abundant plant 1.5 to 2 m tall in Eucalyptus miniata and Eucalyptus tetrodonta forest on laterite, and also on a sandy creek levee (1991); inland, scattered or very localised stands of a dozen plants (1991), an isolated population around drainage lines on very stony lateritic soil near the Flora River (1996), and a plant on a rocky outcrop near the Daly River road (2005). Several collectors noted the blue or blue-green leaves.

Conservation status and regulation

Cycas canalis is listed as Least Concern (LC) by the IUCN in the assessment by J. D. Bösenberg (2022), of which a corrected version was later issued; the IUCN data relayed by GBIF give the LC category (consulted on 21 October 2026). An earlier assessment, by H. Ottley (2010), has not been consulted. Hill (1994) considered the species not threatened in the medium term because of its abundance, while pointing to two risks: overly frequent fires, which hold back reproduction, and uncontrolled residential and tourist development on the coast. The Red List itself could not be consulted directly.

Like every species in the genus except Cycas beddomei, Cycas canalis is listed in CITES Appendix II, where the family Cycadaceae has been included since 4 February 1977. The listing carries annotation #4 (CoP20 version, in force since 5 March 2026): seeds, pollen, seedlings or tissue cultures obtained in vitro and transported in sterile containers, and cut flowers of artificially propagated plants, are not subject to CITES, whereas international trade in the plants themselves requires an export permit. Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States apply CITES through their own national legislation; in the European Union the species is in Annex B of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, whose annexes in force are set by Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, applicable since 29 June 2026. Species+, the official CITES database, names the species and confirms this status. This general information does not replace the official texts: check the rules in force before buying or exchanging plants, ask the seller for proof of provenance and prefer plants raised from seed in cultivation.

Growing Cycas canalis

In short: no institution has published growing advice for Cycas canalis, and no growing report has been found on the forums consulted. It is rare in collections, and a French specialist nurseryman ranks the Northern Territory Cycas among the hardest to grow outside the tropics.

Outdoor and in-ground cultivation

Its habitat (well-drained lateritic soils under a monsoon climate, with a long dry season and frequent fires) points to a plant for full sun in a free-draining, mineral soil, in a frost-free tropical or warm subtropical garden. This is a deduction from its habitat, not a documented result. Montgomery Botanical Center, in South Florida, whose cycad collection is grown outdoors, holds one accession; it has published no observation on the species.

Container cultivation

In the United Kingdom and other temperate regions, it is a plant for a heated glasshouse. In a 2021 note on growing Australian Cycas in a European climate, the French nurseryman Simon Lavaud (Cycadales.eu) classes all the Northern Territory species except Cycas angulata as “very difficult”; he does not name Cycas canalis, which falls into that group by its origin. His general advice for the Australian Cycas is a very mineral substrate, full sun, a glasshouse to lengthen the growing season, and generous watering in hot weather, reduced below 20 °C (68 °F) and stopped when nights fall below 10 °C (50 °F), because of the risk of root rot. These are a grower’s recommendations for the group, not results for this species. The Jardin zoologique tropical at La Londe-les-Maures, in the south of France, has published no observation on Cycas canalis.

In cultivation in the UK, US and Australia

In short: very few records. A garden listed in the BGCI PlantSearch database (consulted in October 2026) has declared the species at some point, which does not prove that a living plant is there today.

  • United States: the online catalogue of Montgomery Botanical Center (Coral Gables, Florida) lists one accession of Cycas canalis, whose number points to 1993; the garden also declares it in BGCI PlantSearch.
  • Australia: a herbarium label of November 2002, from the Channel Point track, records seed collected for the Darwin Botanic Gardens; no source consulted confirms that plants are grown there today. The species does not appear in the Garden Explorer of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney or of the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, nor in the online census of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, and no Australian garden declares it in BGCI.
  • United Kingdom: no record.

Outside these three countries, BGCI PlantSearch also lists the species at Fairy Lake Botanical Garden, in Shenzhen (China), and at a collection registered under the name Château Pérouse, at Saint-Gilles, in the Gard (south of France); neither has published anything on how it is grown. No first-hand report from a private grower in the UK, US or Australia could be read; PalmTalk and Dave’s Garden could not be consulted.

Propagation

Like all Cycas, Cycas canalis is dioecious: a male and a female plant are needed for fertile seed, and seed is rarely offered for sale. No germination data specific to the species have been published. Seeds are exempt from CITES under annotation #4; ask for seed from cultivated plants or collected under permit.

Pests and diseases

No pest or disease specific to the species is documented. In the wild, overly frequent fires are the main threat to its reproduction (Hill 1994). In cultivation, scale insects, including Aulacaspis yasumatsui, can attack any Cycas, and root rot in a cold, wet substrate is the cause of failure most often cited for Australian Cycas in Europe (Lavaud 2021).

Cold hardiness

No cold-tolerance data exist for Cycas canalis. It lives in the tropical north of Australia, under a monsoon climate, and nothing suggests that it can take frost.

European experience

No cultivation result has been published in Europe, in the open ground or in a pot, and no dated frost episode concerns the species. On the French forum Fous de palmiers it is mentioned only for a seed sale, the Italian forum Tropicamente has no message on it, and the collection at Saint-Gilles, in the Gard, that declares it in BGCI has published nothing. In the absence of data, grow it under heated glass.

United Kingdom, United States and Australia

No cold reading and no dated growing report were found, either on forums or from botanic gardens. Treat it as frost-tender; no USDA zone can be given without a documented trial.

Toxicity and precautions

No toxicity analysis specific to Cycas canalis has been found. The risk is, however, well documented in the genus: Cycas tissues, and the seeds above all, contain cycasin, which is converted during digestion into methylazoxymethanol, toxic to the liver and nervous system, along with a neurotoxic amino acid, BMAA. The ASPCA lists the sago palm (Cycas revoluta) as poisonous to dogs, cats and horses, and NC State Extension notes that cycasin is present in all parts of the plant. Until proven otherwise, treat the plant as poisonous: keep seeds and leaves out of reach of children and pets, and wear gloves to clean the seeds. If any part is swallowed, contact a poison centre, a doctor or a vet straight away.

Traditional uses

None of the sources consulted describes a use specific to Cycas canalis. The existence of Aboriginal names shows only that the cycads of the region were known to local people.

Frequently asked questions

Why “canalis”?

Because the species was found at Channel Point, in the Northern Territory: canalis means “channel” in Latin.

Is Cycas canalis a blue cycad?

Partly. The new leaves emerge strongly glaucous, almost blue, then turn glossy green.

Are there still two subspecies?

No. In 1994 Hill separated an inland subspecies, carinata, with keeled leaves; The World List of Cycads and the Flora of Australia now include it in the species.

How can it be told from Cycas armstrongii?

By its almost blue new leaves, its longer leaflets with a midrib more prominent beneath, and its thick orange wool; Cycas armstrongii is smaller and its young leaves are glossy green.

Is it endangered?

No. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern (2022 assessment), because it is locally very abundant; overly frequent fires and coastal development remain risks.

Can it be grown outdoors in the UK?

No, almost certainly not. No cold data exist; it is a tropical species, best kept in a heated glasshouse.

Is it poisonous?

It must be assumed so. It has not been studied, but all parts of Cycas are poisonous, especially the seeds.

Further reading on Succulentes

Sources

Reference sites

Bibliography

  • Hill, K.D. (1994). Three new species of Cycas (Cycadaceae) from the Northern Territory, Australia. Telopea 5(4): 693–701. doi:10.7751/telopea19944995 [Original description of the species and its two subspecies, habitat, conservation, etymology; full text consulted.]
  • Hill, K.D. (1996). A taxonomic revision of the genus Cycas (Cycadaceae) in Australia. Telopea 7(1): 1–64. doi:10.7751/telopea19963040 [Series Armstrongianosae, leaf anatomy, key to the subspecies; full text consulted.]
  • Hill, K.D. (1998). Cycadaceae. In McCarthy, P.M. (ed.), Flora of Australia 48: 597–635. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. [Consulted in its updated online version (profiles.ala.org.au).]
  • de Laubenfels, D.J. & Adema, F. (1998). A taxonomic revision of the genera Cycas and Epicycas gen. nov. (Cycadaceae). Blumea 43(2): 351–400. [Synonymy with Cycas lane-poolei, page 365; full text consulted (archive.org).]
  • Dixon, D. (2004). A review of the gymnosperms of the Northern Territory. The Beagle 20: 1–24. [Regional review; reference taken from The World List of Cycads, text not consulted.]
  • Bonta, M. & Osborne, R. Cycads in the Vernacular: A Compendium of Local Names. The Cycad Society. http://www.cycad.org/documents/Bonta-Osborne-Cycads-Vernacular.pdf [Aboriginal names, after Lindsay et al. 2001; consulted directly.]
  • Ottley, H. (2010). Cycas canalis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T42023A10628338. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T42023A10628338.en [Earlier assessment; reference checked on Crossref, not consulted.]
  • Bösenberg, J.D. (2022). Cycas canalis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T42023A67338530. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T42023A67338530.en [Current assessment; corrected version e.T42023A243415417; references checked on Crossref, LC category relayed by GBIF; page not consulted (access blocked).]
  • Haynes, J.L. (2022). Etymological compendium of cycad names. Phytotaxa 550(1): 1–31. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.550.1.1 [Etymology of the epithet; cited by The World List of Cycads, text not consulted.]
  • Calonje, M., Stevenson, D.W. & Osborne, R. (2026). The World List of Cycads, version 2026.08.15. Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables. doi:10.5281/zenodo.21958524 [Reference checklist: accepted name, original publication, type, range, synonyms, IUCN status; consulted directly.]